Hyogo Governor ‘Likely’ Instructed Official to Leak Whistleblower’s Personal Info; Official Suspended from Public Duties for 3 Months

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:49 JST, May 28, 2025

It is highly likely that Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito instructed a senior official to leak personal information about a whistleblower to three prefectural assembly members, the prefectural government’s third-party investigation committee reported Tuesday.

The committee, chaired by lawyer Ryoji Kudo, publicized the report, which stated a series of problems triggered by an accusation against Saito from the whistleblower. The whistleblower was a former director general of the Nishiharima Prefectural Citizen Bureau who died in July last year.

The committee judged that Chiaki Inomoto, 57, former chief of the prefectural government’s general affairs department, leaked the whistleblower’s personal information to the three prefectural assembly members.

On the day, the prefectural government issued a disciplinary punishment for Inomoto, suspending him from public duties for three months.

“I have not changed my stance that I did not tell [Inomoto] to leak the information,” Saito told reporters on Tuesday at the prefectural government office.

Saito expressed his intention to penalize himself by taking a salary cut because the committee concluded Inomoto, who is a prefectural government employee, leaked the personal information. However, he said he would not resign.

Weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun reported in July last year that Inomoto had leaked the whistleblower’s personal information, which was stored on his work computer, to the three assembly members.

After the article came out, the prefectural government set up a third-party committee comprising three lawyers. The committee had investigated the issue by interviewing 20 prefectural government officials since October last year.

The committee concluded that Inomoto showed printouts of the whistleblower’s personal information to the assembly members and verbally discussed some parts with them. The committee judged those actions constituted a leakage of personal information.

Regarding the purpose of the leak, the report stated that the assembly members assumed Inomoto tried to make them doubt [the whistleblower’s] personality and humanity and tried to call into question the trustworthiness of [the whistleblower’s] document.”

The report said the assembly members’ views of the situation were somewhat convincing.

In the committee’s questioning, Saito denied telling Inomoto to leak the information.

However, the committee concluded it is highly likely the governor and then deputy governor gave instructions to leak the information, based on testimonies from prefectural government officials, including the then former deputy governor Yasutaka Katayama.

On Tuesday, the prefectural government’s personnel management division said it was unable to judge there was such an instruction from Saito because such objective evidence could not be found.

Inomoto issued a comment through his lawyer, saying, “It is regrettable that my action, which was a part of my public duty, was regarded as a leakage of information.”

Inomoto expressed his intention to object to his punishment.